This History U course probes the nature of the life, work, and thought of the nineteenth-century abolitionist, orator, and author Frederick Douglass.
Course Instructor: Professor David Blight, Yale University
Eligibility: High school students
Image Source: Engraving of Frederick Douglass from Frederick Douglass, My Bondage and My Freedom, 1855 (The Gilder Lehrman Institute, GLC05820)
History U
Free for high school students
Using Frederick Douglass’s diaries, memoirs, and speeches, this History U course will examine in depth the public and private sides of Douglass’s life and his importance as a thinker and as a political activist in the great dramas of the Civil War and Reconstruction eras.
The views expressed in this course are those of Dr. David Blight.
Justin Emrich explains what you will learn in this course.
David Blight, Sterling Professor of History, of African American Studies, and of American Studies, Yale University
David Blight is the Sterling Professor of History, of African American Studies, and of American Studies and the director of the Gilder Lehrman Center for the Study of Slavery, Resistance, and Abolition at Yale University. His scholarly work focuses on the Civil War and Reconstruction, American cultural history, American historical memory, and African American history. Dr. Blight has been a guest on Inside the Vault and other Gilder Lehrman programs. His book Frederick Douglass: Prophet of Freedom received the Pulitzer Prize and Gilder Lehrman Lincoln Prize.
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